PM Modi: Gandhi inspired me to launch Swachh Bharat

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that Gandhi’s life inspired and guided him to launch Swachh Bharat. “I must admit that if I had not understood Gandhi’s philosophy so deeply, the programme would have not been a part of my government’s priorities,” he said, addressing the concluding session of the Mahatma Gandhi International Sanitation Convention in New Delhi on Tuesday.

He said political leadership, public funding, partnerships and people’s participation were important in making the world clean. The convention brought together sanitation ministers from across the world. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres too attended the event. The PM launched commemorative postage stamps on Mahatma Gandhi, and a medley CD based on Mahatma Gandhi’s favourite hymn, Vaishnav Jana. Stressing the emphasis Gandhi placed on cleanliness, Modi recalled Gandhi’s Constructive Programme, published in 1945, where rural sanitation was an important subject.

During the fight for Independence, Gandhi had once said that he would give priority to cleanliness over independence, Modi claimed. “An unclean environment, if not cleaned, leads to a situation where one starts accepting circumstances. On the contrary, if one cleans up dirt in the surroundings he gets energised and then does not resign himself to existing adverse circumstances,” Modi quoted Gandhi.

He said Swachh Bharat Mission had become the world’s biggest people’s movement. “Rural sanitation, which stood at 38% in 2014, has reached 94%. More than 5 lakh villages and 25 states have declared themselves free from open defecation,” the PM said, expressing satisfaction at the changing hygiene habits. The PM said that four years ago, 60% people who defecated in the open lived in India but it has dropped to less than 20% now. “90% of toilets that have been built are being used,” he said. The PM said he felt satisfied when he learnt that disease outbreak in villages and medical expense of people have gone down due to Swachh Bharat.